I am really confused by the terminology “Defer Another.” Does it have the same function as Repeat After? It seems it does but I don’t understand how the words “defer another” can mean that. I use “repeat after” for the vast majority of my routine and repeating chores that don’t have real deadlines. Example: backing up my iPad to computer. After I complete the task I want a new task at a specified time out. Let’s say I do that about every 2 weeks. If I don’t do it for 3 weeks, then I want the next task to schedule for 2 weeks from when I finished it, not 1 week later.
Defer Another seems like a really strange phrase to describe this behavior to me while the original repeat after was intuitive. I am not deferring anything. Deferring would be changing the due date, not repeating. And defer another sounds like you deferred it before and now you are doing it again.
‘Defer another’ will create new task with a start date x days from the current date. ‘Repeat every’ will set a due date x days after the original due date. Those a two completely different things.
Actually, to be more precise. Defer Another will repeat the task relative to the day you check it off. And the status is “deferred” of course.
So lets say i have a task called “clean toilet” deferred to 1st June, AND deferred another for 1 week. It showed up on June 1st on my forecast but I didn’t clean the toilet. Lazy boy.
Lets say I cleaned the toilet on June 3rd instead. So now, the task will be deferred to June 10th. One week from 3rd of June NOT 1st of June.
Due Again is similar to the above but the status is due.
Repeat Every is very different from the two above. It’s going to repeat every x week, month, day according to the due/defer date you set. NOT when you check the task off.
So in the toilet cleaning example, it will be deferred to June 7th.
I have just “completed” a task that was “deferred until” 1 1/2 months ago. The Repeat / Defer Another contained 2 months. When I marked the task as completed, the “next deferred” date did not change - it was 2 months from the original “deferred until” date, or about 2 weeks from today.
I would have expected the “next deferred” date to change to one 2 months from when I last completed the task. However, when I looked at the next instance of the item, its “deferred until” was 2 months from today, which was correct.
Am I misunderstanding something by expecting the just-completed item to show the new “deferred until” date?
You would think that the “Next Deferred” date to correctly show two months from today; that is the purpose. But it is the new action’s deferred date that matters.
Hi I’m new to OmniFocus. Funnily enough I found this discussion while I was trying to make a “clean toliet” action that repeats with “defer another” (like @ryanfuse used as an example). I created the action, and for todays action I gave it a due date of today just to I make sure I got it done today. I set “defer another” to “1 month”. But upon marking the action as complete, it simply clones the action and sets the new action’s DUE date to “1 month” into the future with no deferred date.
If I don’t set a due date on the action, it works as expected. But why does having a due date on it prevent the new action from having a defer date? I would like it to just create a new action with the right defer date and not copy the due date at all. The due date was just a constraint I applied so I could have it be listed in my forecast for today.
All I can say is I agree with the original post, defer means “defer” (you don’t do the task and you’re pushing it forward to a new date or period (range, like a week). Repeat is a task I do regularly and whether I do it or not I want it to repeat every period (range fo time) or for a date I set. That’s how anyone who understands English and what the words mean would take it to mean. And I find that aspect of OF2 confusing. I’m hoping OF3 will fix the concept of “repeating/deferred” items (tasks, projects, whatever).
